2021 Film Festival Gallery: Spike Lee’s Cannes Gaffe, Julia Ducournau’s Historic Triumph & ‘Belfast’ Tops TIFF

John Earl Jelks, currently appearing in the HBO Max series Love Life, has joined the previously announced Debra Messing and Enrico Colantoni in the cast of the upcoming Broadway production of Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles.

The Sundance Institute has been named as the recipient of the American Cinema Editors’ 2022 Golden Eddie Award—breaking ground as the first film organization ever to earn the ACE Eddie Awards’ top honor.

AARP announced the nominees for its upcoming Movies for Grownups Awards today which, for the second year now, also includes candidates for TV and streaming “Bests.”

Steve Harvey has no plans for another stand-up comedy special due to cancel culture.

2021 was one of the best years for books about film in recent memory, a statement I make with no self-interest whatsoever. As noted in our holiday gift guide, the year yielded must-have explorations of genre cinema, behind-the-scenes exposés, and book-length celebrations of filmmakers like David Fincher, Spike Lee, and Gus Van Sant; if you’re paying any attention at all, your to-read stack (or your Wishlist) is piled high already.

EXCLUSIVE: Two-time Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo (Harriet) is to star in and produce sci-fi feature Blink Speed for Netflix.

Best Picture: “Drive My Car” (48 points)Runners-up: “Petit Maman” (25), “The Power of the Dog” (23)Best Actor: Hidetoshi Nishijima, “Drive My Car” (63)Runners-up: Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog” (44); Simon Rex, “Red Rocket” (30)Best Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers” (55)Runners-up: Renate Reinsve, “The Worst Person in the World” (42); Alana Haim, “Licorice Pizza” (32)Best Supporting Actor: Anders Danielsen Lie, “The Worst Person in the World” (54)Runners-up: Vincent Lindon, “Titane” (33); Mike Faist, “West Side Story” (26) and Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog” (26)Best Supporting Actress: Ruth Negga, “Passing” (46)Runners-up: Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story” (22); Jessie Buckley, “The Lost Daughter” (21)Best Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, “Drive My Car” and “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” (46)Runners-up: Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog” (36), Celine Sciamma, “Petite Maman” (28)Best Screenplay: Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, “Drive My Car” (46)Runners-up: Pedro Almodovar, “Parallel Mothers” (22); Paul Thomas Anderson, “Licorice Pizza” (20)Best Nonfiction Film:Runners-up:Best Cinematography: Andrew Droz Palermo, “The Green Knight” (52)Runners-up: Ari Wegner, “The Power of the Dog” (40); Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, “Memoria” (35)Special citation for film awaiting U.S. distribution: “Returning to Reims,” Jean-Gabriel PeriotFilm Heritage Award: Bertrand Tavernier and Peter BogdanovichFilm Heritage Award: Maya Cade for the Black Film Archive

The SAG Awards nominations will be announced this coming Wednesday, Jan. 12 at 10 a.m. ET / 7 a.m. PT by actresses Rosario Dawson and Vanessa Hudgens on Instagram Live.

EXCLUSIVE: WME has signed creator, stand-up comedian, director, producer and actor Jerrod Carmichael, and creators and producers Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch. Carmichael most recently directed and starred in On The Count of Three, which Katcher and Welch wrote, which premiered to rave reviews at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and will be released this spring through UAR/MGM. He is next set to star in the upcoming Yorgos Lanthimos film Poor Things and will also be filming his third HBO special – a collaboration with Bo Burnham.

In a year where Chloe Zhao won the Best Director Oscar for “Nomadland” and went on to release one of the biggest box office successes of 2021 with Marvel Studios’ “Eternals,” it appears the year, as a whole, was fairly disappointing when it comes to the gender gap in filmmaking. After 2020 saw reasonable gains in parity amongst female and male filmmakers, 2021 has taken a step back, according to a new survey.

Angelique Jackson Sundance Film Festival has updated COVID-19 protocols for its 2022 gathering in response to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.Notably, Sundance will require all in-person attendees (employees, volunteers, contractors, general public, artists, partners, press, and industry) to be fully vaccinated, with all those who are eligible under CDC guidelines to have received booster shots.The upcoming edition, which runs from Jan.

Over the past year, The Playlist has covered hundreds of prestige films and TV series. We’ve even gone ahead and broke them down and ranked them in our various Best of 2021 lists.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival gala awards show set for Thursday January 6 has been cancelled due to Covid surge concerns.

Best Film: “Drive My Car”Runner-up: “The Power of the Dog”Best Director: Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”Runner-up: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, “Drive My Car”Best Actor: Simon Rex, “Red Rocket”Runner-up: Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog”Best Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers”Runner-up: Renate Reinsve, “The Worst Person in the World”Best Supporting Actor: (tie) Vincent Lindon, “Titane,” and Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog”Best Supporting Actress: Ariana DeBose, “West Side

The New York Film Critics Circle anointed “Drive My Car” as the Best Film of 2021 and now the West Coast critics have had their say. After almost six hours of overall deliberations, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association also selected “Drive My Car” as their Best Film of the year with “The Power of the Dog” as runner-up.

Spike Lee has signed a multi-year creative partnership with Netflix to direct and produce features through his production company, Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks.The acclaimed director has teamed up with Netflix on four projects so far, including Da 5 Bloods, She’s Gotta Have It, Rodney King and as a producer on See You Yesterday.Lee’s next project for the streaming service is Gordon Hemingway & The Realm Of Cthulu, where he serves as producer.Speaking about the partnership with Netflix, Lee

Reinaldo Marcus Green was a grad student at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, angling for extra time with his professor — Spike Lee. Flash-forward six years: Marcus Green has directed one of the best-reviewed dramas of 2021 — “King Richard,” starring Will Smith as Richard Williams, the father of tennis champs Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton).

“Da 5 Bloods” and the “She’s Gotta Have It” series, the streaming giant said Thursday,Under the deal, the “Do the Right Thing” filmmaker will direct and produce narrative films via his Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks production companies.Lee said “there is no better way for me and my company 40Acres and a Mule Filmworks to begin the new year than renew our partnership” with Netflix.

“There Is No Better Way For Me And My Company 40 Acres And A Mule Filmworks To Begin The New Year Than Renew Our Partnership With Ted, Scott And Tendo — Da Fearless Leaders Of NETFLIX. Besides My Joints, We Together Will Focus On The New Diverse Storytellers, YOUTH MUST BE SERVED.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee (Da 5 Bloods, BlacKkKlansman) has entered into a new creative partnership with Netflix, which will see him directing and producing narrative features for the streamer under a multi-year deal.